I have worked as a milliner since 1991 from my home studio in Sonoma, California. I have sold one of a kind and limited edition hats and accessories to private clients, clothing designers, shops, museums, galleries and art shows throughout the United States. I am primarily self-taught, but owe a great deal to the influence of great milliners of the past and present whose work I love and study.
My teaching style allows a lot of room for experimentation and happy accidents. Since I primarily work with fine parisisal straw (and have found it to be a forgiving medium) I shape it organically, by hand, without the aid of blocks or stiffeners and use a combination of simple techniques for shaping and fit that are intended to make hat making more approachable for novices. My motive is simple: I would like to see more women wear hats and to experience the special joy and attention one receives by wearing a hat. Most significantly it is my aim to return the decorative arts of hat making and ribbonry back into the capable hands of everyday women who for centuries have made their own hats and flowers and worn them to wonderful effect.